Recent scholars such as Bowie 1993 and
Lada-Richards 1999, following the lead of Burkert 1983, have
referred to a thronosis ritual at the Eleusinian mysteries
to describe the process wherein the initiate sits with head
covered on a stool. Such an idea is the result of a
terminological confusion over different types of
"enthronement". The term thronosis properly
belongs to Korybantic initiation ritual, not to the Eleusinian
Mysteries. Not only are the terms employed to describe the
rituals different, but the iconographic representations of the
ritual and the mythic paradigms are different as well. The
purificatory silent sitting of the Eleusinian initiate should not
be confused with the bewildering and terrifying treatment of the
enthroned initiate in a Korybantic initiation. Keeping the two
rituals separate is particularly important when analyzing texts,
such as Aristophanes Clouds or Frogs, for allusions
to Eleusinian rituals.

Plato, in the Euthydemus 277de, uses the
term thronosis to describe an initiation ritual in which
the initiand is seated in a throne while the initiators dances
wildly and confusingly around him. Burkert and others have used
Plato's term (and cited Plato's description) to describe the
ritual at Eleusis that involves the initiate sitting down. A
search of the TLG corpus, however, reveals that thronosis
is actually a very rare word. Apart from Plato's use of the term,
which explicitly refers to Korybantic ritual, the only other uses
are in Hesychius, which is a gloss on the Plato passage, and in
the Sibylline oracles (8.43-9), where the ritual of thronosis is
located on Crete. Even the related word thronismos appears
seldom and never in a specifically Eleusinian context. Dio
Chrysostom (II.33-34) uses the term to describe an initiation
ritual full of wild dancing around a wondering initiand, who
gazes in amazement at the figures whirling around him. In every
case, the ritual of enthronement described by thronosis or
thronismos entails a vigorous dancing around the initiate,
who is bewildered by the treatment. Sometimes the dancers are
Kouretes or even Kabeiroi instead of Korybantes, but type of
ritual remains the same.

This kind of Korybantic ritual appears
in a number of representations, which show men, usually armed
with spear and shield, dancing around a seated figure. Often this
figure can be identified as the child Dionysos, as in the ivory
pyxis (LIMC Dionysos 267) decorated with a sequence of scenes
from the life of Dionysos. The mythic parallel for this thronosis
ritual seems to be the story of the infant Dionysos, either as he
is being guarded by the Korybantes from hostile forces or as he
is being distracted and attacked by the Titans. This ambiguity
between the guardian Korybantes and the hostile Titans recurs in
the variety of stories of the infancy of Dionysos and of Zeus,
and it is certainly appropriate for the beginning ordeal of an
initiation, where the initiand is not certain what his initiators
will be doing to him.

The probable mythic precedent for the
ritual connected with Eleusis, on the contrary, has an entirely
different affect. As described in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter
(197-201), Demeter sits on a humble stool in mourning silence
after the loss of Persephone. She fasts and refuses drink until
she takes the sacred kykeon. Such a period of silent
mourning might be appropriate as an initial purificatory step in
the Eleusinian festival.

The iconography indeed suggests that
such a ritual was part of an Eleusinian festival. A number
representations show an initiate, often Herakles, seated on a
stool with a covered head. This initiate is at times being
purified with by a figure holding a liknon or torch. (LIMC
Demeter 145, 146) None of these representations show dancing
figures, nor could the initiand with covered head be bewildered
by unseen gyrations. The "enthronement" at Eleusis is a
calm and solemn ritual of purification, perhaps commemorating the
mourning fast of Demeter, in contrast to the whirling dance
around the initiate in the Korybantic thronosis.